High-resolution multi-stitched inauguration photo

At Barack Obama's inauguration, David Bergman kept busy with his robotic camera mount used in tandem with his Canon G10 camera. After the inauguration, he used his Macbook Pro to stitch together the resulting 220 images into one gigantic 2gb tiff file. The resulting 1,474 megapixel image is dramatic and fun to explore. Equally impressive is that the Gigapan camera mount and the G10 camera he used are not expensive--they can both be purchased for less than $1,000 (less than $500 each).

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A Rant in Rhyme Saves Time

Here is a beat poem that first appeared on YouTube as a concert bootleg with subtitles about a month ago. The artist quickly had the bootleg taken down. And then received a Storm of protests, requests to post it again. Finally, he put it up himself. Sans subtitles, or even video. So listen well to a rational rant that many of us would love to be capable of delivering. Storm, by Tim Minchin I've seen those warning eyes from both my wives, and held my piece for a while. But the temptation is great to emulate this artists storm of bile.

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Read more about the article What’s in a title? The inspiration for “Mother and Child Reunion”
The Story Behind Mother and Child Reunion

What’s in a title? The inspiration for “Mother and Child Reunion”

I heard this story years ago and it always draws a chuckle or a grimmace. The Story Behind Mother and Child Reunion Musician Paul Simon once had a big hit song called "Mother and Child Reunion."    The lyrics included the following: But I would not give you false hope On…

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Billboards for your body, your mind and your planet

Consider the types of billboards that we most often see along the highway. They encourage us to pollute our bodies with unhealthy food, to pollute our minds with shallow amusements and to pollute our Earth by wasting resources and indulging in luxuries. The two billboards I photographed below are all-too-representative of what I've read along highways.

Yes, there are also billboards for public services as well as billboards for useful and reasonable products. What concerns me, though, is that most billboards carry unhealthy messages. There are so many unhealthy billboards out there that unhealthy activities seem to be norm. It's booze, gambling and conspicuous consumption all the way down the highway. What effect might this have on us? It reminds me of James Q. Wilson's broken window theory of crime:

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I saw a nipple.

While walking to the Missouri State Court of Appeals today, I thought I saw a nipple.

Then I got closer . . . I DID! I DID see a nipple!There it was, prominently displayed in a building housing a prestigious courthouse, a court run by the government of the "Show Me" state of Missouri!!

Now, that’s odd … A prominent agency of my federal government (the FCC) is spending huge sums of money trying to punish a TV network for displaying a part of a nipple of Janet Jackson. My state government is simultaneously and shamelessly displaying that same forbidden body part.

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